Staffing agency license in Wyoming: a $25 license with no employer-paid exemption

Wyoming still licenses employment agencies, and its law is broader than most. W.S. 27-8-101 requires anyone who runs an employment office or agency that furnishes employers with job seekers, secures jobs for them, or charges applicants a fee to hold a license from the Department of Workforce Services, with no carve-out for employer-paid search or temporary staffing. The fee is $25 a year and the bond is $500. Wyoming does not register professional employer organizations or health care staffing agencies.

This page covers who the license reaches, what it requires, the fee rules for job seekers and clients, how Wyoming treats PEOs and health care staffing, and the employer accounts a staffing firm needs. For other states, see employment agency license requirements.

Who needs the Wyoming employment agency license

W.S. 27-8-101 says no person, firm or corporation shall open, operate or maintain in Wyoming "any employment office or agency" for any of three purposes without a license from the Department of Workforce Services:

• furnishing employers with persons seeking employment "at manual labor or in clerical, industrial, commercial or business pursuits";
• securing employment for those persons; or
• where a fee, commission or other consideration is charged to applicants "either for employment or for help," which covers both job seekers and employers looking for workers.

The purposes are joined by "or," so charging job seekers is only one way in. The only exemption, W.S. 27-8-110, covers free employment bureaus and University of Wyoming placement services. There is no exclusion for employer-paid agencies, executive search or temporary help firms.

The Labor Standards office lists "employment referral and staffing businesses" among those it serves. A firm that employs its own temps and bills clients for their time can still argue it is not an "employment office or agency" at all, and I found no rule or guidance that settles the point. With a $25 fee and a $500 bond, licensing is cheaper than arguing.

What the license requires

• Fee. W.S. 27-8-101 sets a uniform fee of $25 a year for an agency in a city of 5,000 or more inhabitants and $10 a year in a city of fewer than 5,000. The department's Labor Standards forms page lists "a $25 annual fee for employment referral business licenses" and does not mention the $10 rate.
• Term. Under W.S. 27-8-102 every license ends on December 31. A license for part of a year costs at least one-third of the annual fee, and partial months count as full months.
• Posting. The license names the city, street and building number of the office, and must be posted conspicuously with a copy of the act in each agency.
• Bond. W.S. 27-8-103 requires a $500 bond with one or more sureties approved by the department. The department's bond form, linked from the forms page, uses $500, runs for a calendar year, and covers paying clients sums the agency received for them and damages from misrepresentation or fraud. Some bond-seller websites say $1,000; the statute and the form say $500.
• Register. W.S. 27-8-105 requires a dated register of everyone who applies for help, with the kind of work wanted, open to department inspection. Your ATS can serve if it can produce that list.
• Revocation. Under W.S. 27-8-104 the department may revoke a license after a written complaint, notice and a hearing.
• Penalty. Under W.S. 27-8-108 the department refers violations to the attorney general or the county's district attorney, and W.S. 27-8-111 makes any violation a misdemeanor punishable by a $50 to $100 fine, up to six months in county jail, or both.

I could not find a published application form; the forms page links only the bond form. Ask Labor Standards in Cheyenne for the application.

Fees charged to job seekers and clients

W.S. 27-8-106 caps any registration fee for receiving or filing an application at $1, or $2 if the job pays more than $3 a day. The agency must give a duplicate receipt showing the applicant's name and address, the date, the amount and the work sought, and must refund the full fee on demand if the applicant has not been placed after three days. The figures are dated, but they are still the statute, and they make upfront candidate fees impractical.

W.S. 27-8-107 bars a licensed agency from publishing false or fraudulent notices or advertisements, giving false information or making false promises about work, and making false register entries.

On the client side, W.S. 27-1-114 says a temporary service contractor may not collect a fee from an employer for permanently hiring a temp it placed unless the employer was told in writing of the fee and its amount before the temp started work. Put the conversion fee in the signed client agreement. See temp-to-perm conversion fee for how these clauses are usually drafted.

PEOs: no registration, but unemployment insurance rules

Wyoming has no professional employer organization registration or licensing law; a search of the compiled statutes for "professional employer" and "employee leasing" finds nothing. A bill to create a Wyoming Professional Employer Organization Registration Act, Senate File 122 (2009), died in committee on March 4, 2009, and I found no later enactment.

Unemployment insurance law fills part of the gap. W.S. 27-3-501(a)(viii) defines a "service supplier" as a business primarily engaged in contracting to provide workers to clients that assigns them, sets and pays their wages, and negotiates price and working conditions with the client. Under W.S. 27-3-502(g), a service supplier is the employing unit and pays contributions on those wages; the client is jointly and severally liable for any it fails to pay; and the supplier must keep separate records, list all clients with the department every quarter and file separate quarterly reports for each client. If the client pays the workers directly, the client is the employing unit.

Health care and nurse staffing

Wyoming has no health care or nurse staffing agency registration; the compiled statutes, including 2026 session laws, contain no such act. Two related rules matter:

• Home health agency license. W.S. 35-2-902 bars establishing any health care facility without a Department of Health license, and W.S. 35-2-901(a)(x) includes a "home health agency," defined in (a)(xi) as one "primarily engaged in arranging and directly providing nursing or other health care services to persons at their residence." A firm that supplies nurses to hospitals and nursing homes is not that. A firm that sends caregivers into patients' homes may be.
• Nurse licenses. Each nurse you place needs a Wyoming license or a multistate privilege. Wyoming belongs to the Nurse Licensure Compact under W.S. 33-21-202.

Other Wyoming rules for staffing firms

• Noncompetes. Senate File 107 (2025) created W.S. 1-23-108, which makes void any covenant not to compete that restricts a person's right to be paid for skilled or unskilled labor, for contracts entered into on or after July 1, 2025. Exceptions cover the sale of a business, trade secrets, recovery of some relocation and training costs, and executive and management personnel and their professional staff. A clause barring a temp from working directly for your client appears to fall within the ban; rely on the client-side conversion fee instead.
• Discrimination. The Wyoming Fair Employment Practices Act, W.S. 27-9-105(a)(ii), makes it an unfair employment practice for an employment agency to discriminate because of age, sex, race, creed, color, national origin, ancestry, pregnancy or disability. Complaints go to the Department of Workforce Services.

Employer accounts every Wyoming staffing firm needs

• Unemployment insurance with the Department of Workforce Services. W.S. 27-3-502(g)(vii) makes a temporary service contractor the employing unit of its temps and liable for contributions on their wages.
• Workers' compensation through the department's Workers' Compensation Division. W.S. 27-14-102(a)(viii)(F) names a temporary service contractor as the employer of its temporary workers. Coverage is mandatory for the extrahazardous employments listed in W.S. 27-14-108 and can be elected for other employees under W.S. 27-14-108(j). See staffing agency insurance requirements for what clients ask for beyond the statutory coverage.
• Secretary of State registration for an out-of-state entity doing business in Wyoming.

The full setup sequence is in how to start a staffing agency. Wyoming's neighbors differ: Utah leaves agency licensing to cities and counties (see staffing agency license in Utah), and Colorado has no general agency license (see staffing agency license in Colorado).

A Wyoming checklist

WYOMING CHECK — [date] — owner: [name]

Employment agency license (W.S. 27-8-101 to 27-8-111):
  [ ] Search, direct hire or temp-to-hire: DWS Labor Standards
      license ($25/yr; $10 in cities under 5,000)
  [ ] Temp staffing only: written answer from Labor Standards
      on whether a license is required
  [ ] $500 bond on the DWS form, calendar year
  [ ] License posted with a copy of the act
  [ ] Applicant register available for inspection
  [ ] License renewed before Dec 31

Fees and contracts:
  [ ] No upfront candidate fees above the 27-8-106 caps
  [ ] Conversion fee disclosed in writing before temp starts
      (W.S. 27-1-114)
  [ ] No noncompetes for temps (W.S. 1-23-108, from 7/1/2025)

Co-employment: UI service supplier quarterly client lists  [ ]
Home care placements: DOH home health agency license?      [ ]
Employer accounts: DWS UI; DWS workers' comp; SOS          [ ]
Next review: [date]

Re-check after each legislative session: Wyoming's agency law still reaches employer-paid recruiters, and a modernizing bill could change its scope, fee or bond.